Meli-Shipak’s kudurru commemorating a land donation to his son Marduk-apla-iddina, limesto

Meli-Shipak’s kudurru commemorating a land donation to his son Marduk-apla-iddina, limestone stela, kassite period, Babylon (discovered in Suse where it had been taken away as a spoil of war), ca 1186-1172 BC. The Louvre.

Invented in Babylon during the kassite dynasty, kudurrus are small stelas bearing texts about royal land donations: these official documents were supposed to garantee the donation retrospectively, even if the king was killed or if a new dynasty took the throne. To ensure the respect of the agreement between the king and the private individual, the donation was placed under the protection of major deities and their emblems were sculpted on the kudurrus.